The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1887-05-19
Our Evening Sermon !
"a british man knoweth it not;
neither doth fool understand this. J"
Psalms 92-6.

The Psalmist was singing praise to
the most high God, and extolling the
wonders of his works, when he made
use of the expression quoted in the
text. "Oh, Lord, how great are thy
works! And thy thoughts are very
deep" then follows the text. A
british man knoweth it not. But we
are not to conclude from this that the
fullness Of the term is accomplished
when we refer to some ignorant Great
ure, with an evident tendency down.
ward, toward the character and estate
of the brute. The term british, in
the abstract, conveys the idea of a
square-iawed, low-browed, villainous-
looking fellow, repulsive to the eyes,
and distasteful to the senses. Hes a
bruter' we say; and that expresses
our conception of his character as be-
ing all that is repulsive. But occa-
sionly comes up the thought that even
the brutes have their commendable
qualities, and we are compelled to clas-
sify the brute kingdom. We have
the clean brutes, the brutes seemingly
possessed Of good impulses, to use such
an extravagant term; then we haye
the more careless brutes, those that
seem to have little care for anything
in this life save the mere living, the
listless existing, the passing of the
time from day to day. Then, coming
on down, we have the british brute,
the hog, that chambers into the trough,
gobbling all it can hold, and spelling
ali the rest so that no other creature
may possibly secur- anything fit( for
use.
As to the classification Of brutes, so
must men be classified. We have act
i've, earnest, religious men; we have
careless, easy-going, Indifferent men;
then we have british men. The first
and second grades Of humanity alluded
to seem to have greater or less per-
ception of what constitutes probity of
character, and nobility of action. 1t
does not follow that man must be a
member Of any church in order to live
uprightly. The great question of hu-
man and individual responsibility can
not be shared with any church organ
ization. It is relation existing only
between the man and his maker, and
the man may understand his duty just
as we'll, and discharge it just as fully
in so far as he is individually consid-
cred, without afiliating with any re-
ligious organization in particular; and
he is just as certain Of punishment for
unrighteousness. Every man who is
capable of righteous thought knows
his duty, and makes at least some
weak effort to perform it. But there
the question of comparative character
comes in. There are british men
but they are not always the low-brow-
ed Misunderstanding fellows. There
are some creations of divine wisdom
having the appearance of the most
stylish gentlemen, yet possessing in a
deplorable degree the characteristics
Of brutes We have known men who,
by some some unaccountable freak of
fortune, had reached high place in
the gift Of the people, who were in re-
ality the most degraded and vicious
brutes in their private life. The les
son we get is that the honest heart
should have no fear Of the fine coat, and
that man who is controlled by no
BILE motives should not envy the man
whose miserable acts are hidden be-
hind an inflated wind-bag, with the
picture Of dollar painted upon it.
The world is full Of british men, and
the herculean task Of converting these
is what the church has before it. The
hardest part Of this hard task, is that
suggested by the last clause of the
text-a fool cannot understand it.
The wonderful care exercised over his
people by the Divine Father is as a
sealed book to the fool-and by this
harsh term we mean, in this connec-
tion, that man who has position and
education, but who by willful negli-
gence of duty and leaning toward
wrong, has stunted his moral percep-
tions until he has become moral sim
pleton. Talk to such man about
divine love and divine grace, and he
will utterly fail to understand it. It
is an enigma to him, spiritual prob
lem, which he has neither time nor
inclination to solve. Yet, friends,
there is an easy solution to this prob
lem, an easy way of understanding
the mystery, an easy cure for this
spiritual idiocy. The cure is to go to
the Father in earnest, thoughtful
prayer The man who permits his
souls salvation to be endangered by
the temporary diversions that spring
up along the way, is certainly not
wise. We may cause an occasional
ripple of laughter in the world by an
assumption of waywardness and hard
heartedness, but the time comes at
last when the whole sum Of worldly
enjoyment seems but a little thing
compared with the awful responsibility
before the soul-yet that little black
spot in the record may be enough to
consign the soul to eternal ruin. 1t
is true that british man and the
fool can scarcely understand the won